Crutches Can Be Useful... But Beware

Crutches come in many shapes and sizes. They are things designed to help us along when our natural abilities don't quite work the way we would like them to. They come with names like : eye glasses, knee braces, supports, wraps, slings, etc.

They are wonderful inventions that can help us to heal from stress and/or injury. But sometimes we forget that that is what they are. Some times we decide that we will use the crutch for ever more, because it is so wonderful.

Have you ever sprained an ankle so bad that the doctor gave you crutches to use until the ankle could heal and strengthen? If so, how long did you use the crutches? Did you just decide to use them for the rest of your life so you wouldn't have to worry about the ankle any more?

Probably not. You slowly start to use the ankle again, to build it back up to it's former strength. As time goes by, you use the crutches less and less until you don't need them at all.

What would happen if you decided to just use the crutches all the time and never try to use the ankle ever again? Well, ankle and the leg connected to it would eventually atrophy, and you could actually completely lose the ability to use it.

We need to remember that this holds true for all types of crutches. So we need to be careful about becoming too attached and dependent upon our crutches.

I actually knew a man who decided that it would be really neat to use a motorized chair to get around in all the time. He was a little overweight and didn't particularly enjoy walking around. He was doing well enough financially that he could afford to buy a four wheeled, motorized scooter chair, and he did. He thought it was so very cool to ride around on it everywhere he went. Well, as you can probably guess, it wasn't really all that long before his weight nearly doubled and he was unable to get around without the motorized chair. He then began to develop other health problems as well.

The strange thing was that it never really dawned on him that the fun little scooter was the cause of much of his problems. He continued to praise it, for allowing him to get around.

It is important that we recognize our crutches as crutches, and that we need to work on re-strengthening what ever may be weak that caused us to use the crutch in the first place.

For instance, if you are using a knee brace, you should have times where you put the brace aside and do exercises that will help to strengthen and rehabilitate the knee and leg. Of course this needs to be done with patience and wisdom. And, of course, you need to make sure that the body is getting good nutrition, from good whole foods, so that it can heal and rebuild.

Eye glasses are also another type of crutch. If you decide to, and you find the right information, you can exercise your eyes back to health. There are eye doctors out there who correctly use glasses as crutches. They teach you how to exercise your eyes and bring them back to health. They can periodically give you weaker and weaker glasses to wear until your eyes are back to full strength.

The human body is a marvelous machine, endowed by it's creator with the ability to heal and strengthen. Given the right nutrients, and care, and exercise (and avoiding toxins that would interfere with growth) the body can heal itself of almost ailments.

So take a look at your life, and see what 'crutches' you may be using. Figure out what types of things you will need to do to rebuild enough to not need the crutches. It can bring much joy and freedom to your life.

Get knee exercises HERE.

Get eye exercises HERE.